The Females and the Non-Humans in Julie Taymor’S the Tempest
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DOI: 10.1515/genst -2016-0001 THE FEMALES AND THE NON-HUMANS IN JULIE TAYMOR’S THE TEMPEST YUKIKO MORI Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganeishi, Tokyo 184-0012, Japan [email protected] Abstract: In Julie Taymor’s film version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2010), Prospero is changed into a female, Prospera. As almost all the original lines and plots are retained, the film would appear to be a ‘straight’ film version of Shakespeare. However, changing the sex of the main character sheds a new light on the original play and proves the film to be an inspiring adaptation. By examining the relationship between the female characters (Prospera, Miranda) and the non-humans (Caliban, Ariel) in the film, this paper will show how deeply sexuality is related to the power struggle and the final reconciliation. Keywords: adaptation, Julie Taymor, sexuality, The Tempest 1. Introduction In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, little is known about Prospero’s wife. In Act 1, scene 2, Miranda recollects her memories of her infant days: ‘Had 1 I not / Four or five women once that tended me?’ (1.2.46-7). The ‘women’, however, do not necessarily include her mother, but may just refer to her nurse and other waiting women. Informed that her father was the Duke of Milan, she asks Prospero with astonishment, ‘Sir, are not you my father?’ (1.2.55), to which Prospero answers, ‘Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and / She said thou wast my daughter’ (1.2.56-7). This is the only time Prospero’s wife is mentioned in Shakespeare’s play. In Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010), Prospero is changed into Prospera, the wife of the Duke of Milan. As almost all the original lines and plots are retained, the film would appear to be a ‘straight’ film version of Shakespeare. It is true that this film is not among the striking adaptations with surprisingly new settings such as Forbidden Planet (1956) or Yellow Sky (1948). Forbidden Planet ‘takes the Shakespeare movie into the realm of science fiction’ (Rothwell 1999:221) and is ‘the most famous Tempest offshoot’ (Howard 2000:306-7), while Yellow Sky had earlier ‘turned The Tempest into a harsh post-war Western’ (Howard 2000:306). However, changing the sex of the main character sheds a new light on the whole play, making the film a very challenging adaptation of Shakespeare. By examining the relationships between the female characters, Prospera and Miranda, and the non-human Ariel and Caliban, I would like to explore how sexuality relates to the play’s power struggle as well as to the final reconciliation. While most people accept Ariel as a spirit, some would argue that Caliban, the son ‘got by the devil himself / Upon thy wicked dam’ (1.2.321- 22), the ‘foul witch Sycorax’ (1.2.259), is not a non-human but a human being who is native to the island. It is true that ‘a century ago, Sidney Lee identified Caliban with the natives of the Western Hemisphere, thereby 2 inviting an association between Shakespeare’s savage and colonized peoples’ (Vaughan 1991:xv). In this paper, however, I group Ariel and Caliban together under the category of ‘non-human’ in the sense that they are very different from the European norm of ‘human beings’. 2. The Females and the Non-humans 2.1. Additional background In the film, Prospera was not the powerful Duchess of Milan from the beginning. To explain how Prospera, a woman, came to a position of power, the film provides some original lines. Prospera tells Miranda that she was the wife of the Duke of Milan, who tolerantly let her devote herself to study of ‘the power contained in some elements to harm and to heal’. ‘After thy father’s death,’ she continues, ‘authority was conferred as was his will to me alone, thereby awakening the ambition of my brother, thy uncle, called Antonio.’ While Shakespeare’s Prospero says almost nothing about his wife except to declare her chastity, Taymor’s Prospera describes her husband’s title, generosity, and will that enabled her to have both scholarly knowledge and political power. It is noteworthy that her husband’s will was essential to make a female the ruler of Milan. In addition, the word ‘thereby’ implies that Prospera’s brother thought it unfitting for a woman to hold power by herself. Another important addition in Taymor’s version is that Prospera’s brother Antonio slandered her, saying that she was ‘a practiser of black arts, a demon, nay a witch’, which threatened her life and deprived her of her authority; because of this false and dangerous rumour, ‘[her] councillors turned against [her]’ and thus caused her to lose her position in her Dukedom. Antonio strategically attacked the femininity of Prospera, 3 because in Shakespeare’s time it was thought that ‘witches […] are usually unchaste, and unchaste women take the risk of being labelled witches’ (Dusinberre 1975:70). Sexuality moves centre stage once Prospero is turned into a female figure. 2.2. Caliban and the females On the island, Prospera’s most potent opponent is Caliban. In this film, Caliban’s most striking feature is his physical strength in contrast with Prospera’s signs of physical decline and ageing. When Prospera causes the storm through her magic, it seems she has to muster all her strength. When the camera shows her face in close-ups, her deeply wrinkled skin tells us that she is an old and physically weak woman. While controlling the tempest, she stands on a cliff top and cries out against the strong wind she herself has called up, but she is sweating and panting. It seems that the magic she uses requires much energy and that she becomes weary when she practises the magical art. From an early point, the film clearly shows that Prospera is getting old, which is making it difficult for her to execute any large-scale magical enterprise. Thus the tempest she causes is her last chance to manipulate all her enemies at once, not only because they will never again sail near her island but also because she would never physically be able to endure the use of such strong magic again. On the other hand, Caliban seems young, physically energetic, and powerful. When Prospera and Miranda visit him in his cell-like dwelling, Prospera has to point her magic wand at him so that he does not come near enough to attack her and her daughter. Caliban once tried to sexually abuse Miranda, and it would not be a wild guess to assume that he could have tried to abuse Prospera too. The two women seem to be afraid of him – afraid of his physical and sexual power. Caliban’s plot to assassinate Prospera is more 4 dangerous than the one against Prospero in the original play simply because she is a woman, that is, a member of the ‘weaker’ sex. It is only Prospera’s magic power that just manages to keep the women superior to him. Nevertheless, Caliban is indispensable for Prospera and Miranda, as the former admits when she tells her daughter ‘We cannot miss him: he does make our fire, / Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices / That profit us’ (1.2.313-15). Though the lines are identical to those in the original, their meaning differs markedly from when they are spoken by Prospero, the male character. In this film, a mother and daughter really must have needed someone to do the heavy physical work necessary for their survival. The physical weakness which is stressed visually in this film also makes Prospera more dependent on Caliban. Thus too, at the end of the film, the dialogue between Prospera and Caliban is carefully recast. In the original play, it goes as follows: Alonzo. (pointing to Caliban) This is a strange thing as e’er I looked on. Prospero. He is as disproportion’d in his manners As in his shape. (To Caliban) Go, sirrah, to my cell. Take with you your companions. As you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. Caliban. Ay, that I will; and I’ll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! Prospero. Go to, away! (5.1.292-301) 5 However, in Taymor’s film, Prospero/a’s first speech and Caliban’s first one and a half lines are omitted, so that the passage proceeds like this: Alonzo. (pointing to Caliban.) This is a strange thing as e’er I look’d on. Prospera. Go, sirrah, to my cell. Take with you your companions. As you look To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. Caliban. What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! Prospera. Go to, away! The master-servant relationship almost dissolves while Caliban’s self- recognition remains. After this conversation, when the other characters have left, Caliban and Prospera stay where they are. Without saying anything, they look at each other for a while with a kind of respect and even a hint of love. Then Caliban climbs up the stairs and finally disappears through double doors; obviously, he is well aware that he is now free, and Prospera sees him go with a kind of grief and relief at the same time. She does not scold Caliban away but seems to understand and accept him after all as if he were one of her fellows.